Dutch police officers outside a hotel in the city of Donetsk

KIEV, July 31. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) at its extraordinary meeting on Thursday ratified the Ukrainian-Dutch agreement on the international mission to secure the MH17 crash site in the Donetsk region. The draft law was prepared by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Ukraine and the Netherlands signed the agreement on the international mission on July 28.

According to the agreement, the multinational international mission for securing the crash probe, led by the Netherlands, is aimed at “providing assistance in the gathering of the body remains and investigation of the crash of the Boeing 777 plane of Malaysia Airlines in the Donetsk region.”

The mission comprises military and civilian personnel of the Netherlands, Australia and, if necessary, other states the citizens of which were on board the crashed plane.

The mission personnel are allowed to carry arms and use force in self-defence in their activity, in accordance with the agreement. The mission personnel are also allowed to wear field uniforms. The mission comprises no more than 700 armed men.

On July 17, the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 passenger airliner on flight MH17 from the Dutch city of Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur crashed in eastern Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk Region, killing all 298 people on board.